The Foundling Hospital of Shanghai. 423 



basket suspended in a recess at the entrance. After the new- 

 born child has been deposited, a signal is given with a bam- 

 boo stick, after which the receptacle is turned inwards and 

 the innocent without delay taken charge of. Each child has 

 its own wet-nurse or attendant. 



The building is lofty, roomy, and passably clean, but the 

 children, one and all without exception, have a sickly ap- 

 pearance, and seem to suffer much from eruptions and affec- 

 tions of the eye. There was not one child above two years of 

 age. It is worth recording that every one of these children 

 was of the female sex ; their male offspring, even when ille- 

 gitimate, the mothers seem much less disposed to part from. 

 It frequently happens, moreover, owing to the low considera- 

 tions in which the female sex are held, that even legitimate 

 children of that sex are occasionally committed to the silent 

 receptacle of the foundling's basket. 



We inquired of one of the overseers what was the destiny 

 of these unhappy children when they grew up, but could get 

 no satisfactory reply. We were informed that they were 

 occasionally adopted as children by those who had no family. 

 But more extended inquiries leave us rather inclined to be- 

 lieve that these poor waifs of humanity constitute a not in- 

 considerable contingent to that unhappy class of beings who, 

 carefully brought up, clothed, and fed by speculative foster- 

 mothers, are at a suitable age sold for concubines to the 

 well-to-do Chinese. 



One very remarkable charitable institution, for which there 



